The crushing defeat at Wind Howling Gorge spread through Konoha's frontline forces like a thunderclap.
The Konoha White Fang and his elite squad had suffered devastating losses and narrowly escaped total annihilation!
The shock of that news briefly overshadowed even the joy brought by the steady progress of the "Stone Mill Offensive."
But they did not sink into despair, let alone give up.
The shame of defeat, the pain of their comrades' grievous injuries, and the brush with death had not broken their resolve. Instead, like cold iron cast into a furnace, they stoked an even fiercer flame.
A more restrained yet more resilient strength began to grow in the hearts of the squad's three remaining members.
With the Hatake Squad severely depleted-Hizashi's grievous injuries had left him unable to fight-and every member in poor condition, Torifu Akimichi decisively reassigned their mission after a thorough assessment.
This assault blade, once unstoppable, was temporarily withdrawn from the frontmost lines and tasked instead with defending a crucial position on the flank of the "Stone Mill Offensive."
Built by Konoha's combat engineers using natural rock formations and Earth Release ninjutsu, this fortified strongpoint was the "iron anvil" that secured the flank as the "stone mill" rolled forward.
From a spear driving relentlessly onward, they became an anvil as immovable as a mountain.
For a group as proud as theirs, that change in role should have been an ordeal.
Yet now, all four of them-including Hizashi in the rear-clearly understood that this was a necessary stage in gathering strength and honing themselves.
The air in the Medical Camp carried the mingled scents of disinfectant and medicinal herbs.
Hizashi Hyuga lay in a hospital bed, his face still pale. Tsunade had personally treated the wound on his back, which cut deep enough to expose bone,